


Till You Found Me

by Maitimiel



Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Elf/Human Relationship(s), Eol who?, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 17:19:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7062160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maitimiel/pseuds/Maitimiel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a few years away, Aredhel comes back to the woman who saved her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Till You Found Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zdenka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/gifts).



No one came to take her horse or help her to the ground. No one offered to carry her luggage or show her the way. But nobody tried to stop her from entering the small village of wooden houses either, and she felt reassured enough by that. It hadn't been that long, after all, since she had last met those people. They should remember her.

She didn't know the way to Haleth's house, though.

When they had reached Brethil, a few years before, there had been plenty of game and wide land to build on, but also legions of orcs to fend off. Her friend had decided that fighting off the creatures, both for their own safety and to honor their agreement with the Doriathrin, was a priority at the moment, and when autumn came there were still not many permanent houses to speak of.

Things had changed around here. There were now several wooden houses built all around, in a slightly circular disposition, the natural color barely discernible in the distance. They were not so close to the main course of water anymore, building instead near a smaller stream, away from the path. It was reasonably easy to protect, Aredhel thought to herself. Also, there were a lot more children now.

She wondered briefly if the son of Haldar was among them. She searched the curious young faces that watched her from a distance for signs of Haleth's nephew, but if he was there, she couldn't recognize him.

"Could any of you show me the way to the house of Lady Haleth?" Aredhel asked them in their own tongue, approaching the kids softly.

"Are you still lost girl?" asked incredulously a very familiar voice behind her and her heart leaped pleasantly as she turned back.

Haleth was standing relaxed beside her sister-in-law, longbow in one hand, nephew in the other. Her smile was so radiant Aredhel felt her face lighting up impossibly.

"I was never lost," she said, walking towards them, "I was merely searching."

"Of course. You have found me," Haleth inclined her head in greeting.

"Yes,"—Aredhel looked at the other woman and the boy—"were you going somewhere?"

Haleth looked at her nephew before turning back to Aredhel with a milder expression.

"Shooting practice," she said apologetic, "Halmir, would you mind if..."

"Don't," Aredhel interrupted, "Go on. I can wait."

Haleth seemed unsure, but Aredhel was firm. "I won't disappear in the air. Go,"— she smiled at Halmir—"We'll speak at dinner."

Haleth went — not without looking back, and Aredhel watched with her sister-in-law until they disappeared in the woods — other children following the two of them. Them she let herself be lead to the big house Haleth resided in.

* * *

Dinner was a very pleasant event. Aredhel hadn't realized how much she missed the no-bullshit manner in with the people of Haleth spoke, or the simplicity of their every meeting. Halmir didn't really remember Aredhel at all, but his mother had been close enough to her that conversation flowed easily, and everybody she met seemed satisfied to see her well. Haleth herself kept quiet most of the night, but it was a thoughtful silence, and not unpleasant.

The two of them didn't have an opportunity to speak alone until late at night. When everybody else had retired, Aredhel offered her hand and lead Haleth outside to the stars, and the leader of the Haladin had the courtesy of not complaining about being guided in her own house.

They settled at the base of a hill opposite to the village and stayed in silence for a while. Aredhel hadn't let go of Haleth's hand.

"I expected you to be back sooner," Haleth said at last, not quite confronting.

Aredhel drew a sharp breath before answering quietly: "I had things to do."

"Of course you had," the woman agreed, "Did you ever meet your cousin?"

Aredhel looked down, pulling her arms around her bended knees. "He was worried about me. Everybody was. My father," she paused, "My brothers. There were search parties. I was gone for too long."

Haleth looked away at that. "Only for as long as you wished to be."

"I know."—Aredhel looked at the stars shining above them—"But still."

"At the time, you didn't seem to think it was long at all. A year to an elf, you said, was like a week to a mortal," Haleth's tone had something of a challenge now.

"Well"—Aredhel tried to think of a rebuttal to that and failed. "It does sound like something I'd say," she couldn't help a little smile, "But it was hell to explain back at home."

Haleth wasn't sure of what Aredhel meant by home. She had never been sure whether she had been running towards something or away from something when she found Aredhel lost in the woods, and the elf always relucted to bring up her family in conversation.

"Did you return to your brother's city?" she asked tentatively.

Aredhel shook her head.

"I didn't want to be cupped up anymore. I went back to Hithlum, to my Father's house, for a while."

They were silent for a while, listening to the crickets. Among the chirpings and hoots, the forest still sounded more or less the same it always had, back when the two of them first took to talking in the dark. It was easier that way. They could say things that couldn't be spoken of in daylight.

"I was lost, you know," Aredhel broke the silence pensively.

"Of course I know," Haleth said more lightly. "If you can't find your way in a small village like this I can only wonder what..."

"No!" Aredhel interrupted. There was no one else Haleth would have allowed to interrupt her that often. Aredhel went on, "I mean before. When you found me back then, I was quite lost. I didn't really want to go anywhere, and I certainly didn't want to go back. I was lost, but you found me."

Haleth tried to see Aredhel's face in the dark, but it was hidden by her hair.

"I found you," she replied, "is that why you stayed then? Cause you didn't want to go anywhere else?"

She could live with that, Haleth though. It was understandable enough. Aredhel shook her head again.

"I wanted to stay. I hadn't wanted to stay anywhere for a long time."

Why didn't you, Haleth wanted to ask. Why did you leave so soon and for so long?

Aredhel seemed to sense what Haleth didn't say.

"I had to go," she said, as if in answer.

"Five years is a long time for a mortal," Haleth murmured. It had been a bitter wait. She almost had believed her closest friend wouldn't come back. She had feared something might have happened to her in the dark woods and only her own responsibilities to her people had kept her from searching the elf herself.

"For an elf too,"—Aredhel looked into Haleth's eyes—"my family didn't want me to come back."

"Why did you?" Haleth found herself asking, though a part of her didn't want to know, was afraid that if Aredhel said what she came back to say, she might disappear again and never return, or return in a few "elf weeks", when Haleth might just be dead or too old to remember her anyway.

Aredhel raised her hand softly to lightly caress a wrinkle around Haleth's eye. "Do you not know?"

Haleth looked away. "It wasn't me who didn't know, back then."

Back then, Aredhel had feared. It was unheard of. What would happen the day Haleth finally ceased to be? It was one thing to be aware that any lover could theoretically be taken to Mandos at any time. It was another to know they _would_ , soon.

She had run back to her father's lands, and thought herself safe from such feelings by all the distance she had put between herself and Haleth. But try as she might have, she still couldn't put the Edain leader out of her heart, or her head. She thought of her when she hunted with her brother and cousins, when she was stuck in boring events of her father's court, when she found release at someone else's arms.

Aredhel could no longer enjoy all the things she used to. Every damn minute, she thought of what Haleth might be doing, and regretted that she was not there with her.

"I knew, even then," Aredhel said quietly, "I was afraid."

Haleth let go of her breath. "And aren't you afraid anymore, girl?"

"It's really funny when you call me girl, you know. I'm so much older than you it isn't funny."—she sobered up—"The alternative is much worse."

"I don't want you here cause you've run out of alternatives!" Haleth exclaimed.

"That's not what I meant!" Aredhel said quickly, "I would rather have you than not, that's all!"

" _Having_ me?"

"For Eru's sake!" Aredhel was starting to feel she might have guessed wrong after all, "Look, I just. When I left, I had the impression that maybe..."

"Yes?" Haleth asked petulantly, feeling rather warm.

"That you wanted me too!" Aredhel said loudly, and then quieted down, looking around them. There was no one visible, but she murmured: "If I was wrong..."

"You weren't," Haleth looked intently at her own hands, counting the lines age had put there.

"If your heart changed..."

"Nothing has changed, lady elf. The Edain are not so light of heart as your kind might think," There was pride in her voice, always. Haleth never envied the life of the Eldar.

"Then perhaps," Aredhel hesitated, just for a second, "would you _have_ me?"

Their eyes finally met.

Haleth had been there when this princess of the elves was almost trapped in the darkness of Nan Elmoth. She had seen her half delirious after a poisoned arrow had found her flank in one of their many skirmishes with the servants of the enemy. Never had she seen Aredhel this _vulnerable_.

"I would only keep you for as long as you wished to be kept," She spoke, not looking away. There were as many stars in Aredhel's eyes as there were in the sky.

The elf laughed shakily, "I'm afraid I might want to 'be kept' for longer than you can keep me." She moved closer to the other woman. "Will you?"

Haleth carefully put her arms around Aredhel, sighing. "Then stay. And I'll 'have' you."

And Aredhel stayed.


End file.
